DESCRIPTION: This is application is for a competing continuation and requests 4, three year postdoctoral positions. The environmental pathology program at University of California Davis, currently entering it's 20th year, supports a subspecialty group of veterinary pathology students whose research and career interests is in health effects of environmental agents. It is a part of a larger research training program in pathogenesis of disease administered by the Department of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology and the graduate group in comparative pathology. As participants in a 6-year overall program leading to board eligibility and the Ph.D., environmental pathology graduate students are generally expected to have completed their clinical training and have entered their graduate and research program. The emphasis of the environmental pathology training program at UC Davis is on the application of cellular and molecular mechanisms of disease to human health problems caused by agents present in the environment. The training uses the format of a specialty-tailored Ph.D. degree program in comparative pathology. The first 12 months of the 3 to 4-year research program are spent primarily in taking advanced coursework appropriate to pathology and environmental toxicology and an introduction to the environmental research program at UC Davis through seminars and rotations in research laboratories. The training includes comparative anatomic pathology and coursework in basic cell biology, the cell and molecular basis of disease, biochemical toxicology, and pharmacology. The second part of the training consists of a thesis research project under the direction of one of the 18 program faculty within one of the multidisciplinary units. The coursework and laboratory research experience must be sufficient to qualify the trainee for the PhD degree. Currently active areas include reproductive toxicants and teratogens, hazards posed by air pollutants, pesticides, industrial and natural toxicants, environmental carcinogenesis, effects of electromagnetic fields, and hepatotoxins and pneumotoxins.